Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Even though the number of vegetarians and vegans is increasing every day, it's hard to find a vegetarian or a vegan friendly restaurant, if you are visiting a new city.

Before visiting a new city, I always make it a point to visit the wonderful website Happy Cow.

Happy cow lists all the vegetarian and vegan restaurants when you enter the zip code of the place you are visiting. Happy Cow also lists all the health food stores, vegan-friendly and vegetarian-friendly restaurants.

So even if you're not a vegan or a vegetarian, visit Happy Cow - amazing website to find good food.

Friday, December 17, 2010

During summer my family and I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Vancouver and Victoria, in British Columbia.

British Columbia is a beautiful province with pristine lakes and mountains.

During our stay in Vancouver, we had lunch at Saravanaa Bhavan. If you like South Indian food, then you will surely like this restaurant. Some of the items in lunch buffet were Rasam(lentil soup), Idly(steamed rice and lentil cake), Medhu Vada,(lentil fritters), Sambhar(lentil and vegetable thick soup), Poriyal(vegetable fry), Kootu(vegetable with lentils), Kolumbhu(thick gravy, eaten with rice), Potato Masala(Potato with spices), Chana Masala, Paneer Butter Masala(cottage cheese dish), Palak Gobi(spinach with cauliflower), Rice, Special Rice, Bisibelebhat(lentils ,rice and vegetable in a spicy sauce), Curd Rice(yogurt rice), Raitha(curds with spices), Papad, Coconut Chutney, Tomato Chutney, Lemon Pickle, Payasam(pudding made with diary milk), Rava Kesari(contains butter), Masala/plain Dosa, Poori & Naan .

Indian cuisine is very vegan friendly. So, I was able to relish almost 90% of the tasty dishes in this restaurant. The only item I was not satisfied was the masala dosa. The masala dosa which should look crispy was soggy. It looked and tasted as if it was made from all purpose flour. Masala dosa is made with fermented rice and lentil batter. Sometimes, a dollop of butter or ghee(clarified butter) is drizzled on Masala dosas, so make sure you tell the waiter about it. And if you see the words -paneer (indian cottage cheese), dahi (yogurt) , or thayir (yogurt), then you should avoid it if you are a vegan! If you are a vegan, then you can't eat any type of sweet in Indian restaurants, as they are made with diary products such as milk, cream and ghee.

Near the counter, trays of delicious burfis and halwas and deep-fried snacks such as samosas, adorned the shelves. I asked the person behind the counter, if there were any sweets made without diary products. Unfortunately, only one sweet was vegan. That sweet was kaju katli(cashew fudge). I love Indian sweets, everything from halwas to burfis and kheers, and I make these tasty items using earth balance(replacing ghee or butter) , and almond or soy milk (replacing diary milk).If you want to make Indian sweets, then you should visit Vaishali's blog Holy Cow

In short, Saravana Bhavan is a great restaurant if you like Indian food.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Idli is a very popular breakfast item in southern parts of India. Traditionally idli is made from ground fermented rice and urad dal(lentil) batter. I recently made idli using rolled oats as one of the ingredients. Oats idlis tasted so YUM!